Cracking Potential of Alkali-Activated Concrete Induced by Autogenous Shrinkage

Alkali activated concrete (AAC) has not received broader industry acceptance, one reason of which lies in the uncertainties in the durability against shrinkage and potential cracking. Many studies reported that AAC exhibit larger autogenous shrinkage than OPC concrete. However, it is unable to deduce that AAC should show higher cracking...

Micromechanics-guided development of a slag/fly ash-based strain-hardening geopolymer composite

Strain-hardening geopolymer composite (SHGC) lately emerged as a promising alternative to traditional strain-hardening cementitious composite with added advantages of industrial by-product utilization and enhanced sustainability. However, as the design of SHGC requires multi-factor optimization, the application of traditional trial-and-error...

Cracking potential of alkali-activated slag and fly ash concrete subjected to restrained autogenous shrinkage

This study aims to investigate the cracking potential of alkali-activated slag (AAS) and alkali-activated slag-fly ash (AASF) concrete subjected to restrained autogenous shrinkage. Temperature Stress Testing Machine (TSTM) is utilized, for the first time, to monitor the stress evolution and to measure the cracking time of alkali-activated...

Internal curing of alkali-activated slag-fly ash paste with superabsorbent polymers

This study investigates the influences of internal curing on reducing the autogenous shrinkage of alkali-activated slag/fly ash (AASF) paste. The influences of internal curing with superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) on the reactions and microstructure of AASF paste are investigated. It is found that the SAPs absorb liquid mainly before the...

Isothermal calorimetric study on the heat evolution and the apparent activation energy of alkali-activated slag/fly ash pastes

Alkali-activated slag/fly ash (AASF) as an environmental-friendly binder system for construction materials has recently attracted great attention from both academic and industrial communities. Towards its wider engineering application, it is crucial to have a better understanding of the temperature induced effects by different curing regimes and...

Durable lubricant-infused anodic aluminum oxide surfaces with high-aspect-ratio nanochannels

Recently, lubricant-infused surfaces (LIS) have emerged as a prominent class of surface technology for antifouling, anti-icing and anticorrosion applications. However, long-term corrosion exposure and mechanical damages may deteriorate the practical performance of LIS during application. In this study, a robust LIS was fabricated by the...

Chemical deformation of metakaolin based geopolymer

Chemical deformation (chemical shrinkage/expansion), the absolute volume change during reactions, is a key parameter influencing the volume stability, especially the autogenous deformation of a binder material. This work, for the first time, reports an in-depth investigation on the chemical deformation of metakaolin based geopolymer (MKG)....

A Reliability Prediction for Integrated LED Lamp with Electrolytic Capacitor-Free Driver

This paper studies the interaction of catastrophic failure of the driver and LED luminous flux decay for an integrated LED lamp with an electrolytic capacitor-free LED driver. Electronic thermal simulations are utilized to obtain the lamp's dynamic history of temperature and current for two distinct operation modes: constant current mode (CCM...